DigiNotar is a Dutch certificate authority that issues digital certificates that were considered to be trustworthy. That was until they were hacked and the certificates compromised. This was a major problem because everybody from Microsoft, Apple, Google, Mozilla, the Dutch Government among others used their certificates. What made the problem worse is that the hack might have taken place in mid July which meant millions might have been exposed to certificates that could have made everything from VPN sessions to online banking insecure.
Now it is imperative that you make sure that you run your software updater on your computer to make sure your OS is safe. Microsoft and Apple have released updates that kills DigiNotar certificates dead. You should also make sure your browser is up to date. For example Firefox has come out with two updates to make sure that their browser isn’t affected by these certificates. If you use certificates for any other reason, say SSL VPN connections for example, you should make sure that any DigiNotar certificates are removed. That way you aren’t open to attack by whomever did this.
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This entry was posted on September 10, 2011 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed
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Hey IT Nerd! What’s This About DigiNotar Being Hacked And Why Should I Care?
DigiNotar is a Dutch certificate authority that issues digital certificates that were considered to be trustworthy. That was until they were hacked and the certificates compromised. This was a major problem because everybody from Microsoft, Apple, Google, Mozilla, the Dutch Government among others used their certificates. What made the problem worse is that the hack might have taken place in mid July which meant millions might have been exposed to certificates that could have made everything from VPN sessions to online banking insecure.
Now it is imperative that you make sure that you run your software updater on your computer to make sure your OS is safe. Microsoft and Apple have released updates that kills DigiNotar certificates dead. You should also make sure your browser is up to date. For example Firefox has come out with two updates to make sure that their browser isn’t affected by these certificates. If you use certificates for any other reason, say SSL VPN connections for example, you should make sure that any DigiNotar certificates are removed. That way you aren’t open to attack by whomever did this.
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This entry was posted on September 10, 2011 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.